Don’t Freak Out: Why Upheaval Can Be a Good Thing

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Innovative. Resilient. Entrepreneurial. Solutions-oriented. These are the 21st century career buzzwords that populate the average corporate performance review or resume. They speak to the expectations of today’s volatile economy. Today’s professionals are expected to take whatever upheaval the market throws their way, and not only deal with it, but spin it into an advantage.

In theory, most of us would like to say we inhabit this rarefied domain of serial innovators who thrive on constant change. But in reality, a big upheaval in your life can be pretty terrifying, especially if you have a family to support or other people relying on you.

What happens when our best-laid plans go awry? “People are going to expect you to freak out,” suggested Veronica Fisk, a former Vice President at a top global bank, whose position was eliminated due to restructuring a year after she and her new husband moved to India for her job.

“Look at it as an opportunity to show how strong and confident you are, especially as a woman. Project that confidence. Say, ‘I’m an accomplished professional and I think it’s an opportunity for me.’”

Here’s some inspiration and advice to help you move forward through your own personal or professional upheaval.

Taking Risks
It’s important to take career risks, Fisk believes. That’s why, when her company offered her a sales position in India, she jumped at the opportunity. That also meant convincing her then-boyfriend to accelerate their plans to get married so they could move abroad. Ultimately, she was managing a large portfolio of big-name clients when her company was hit by a wave of aggressive restructuring. “Suddenly the environment went from one of growth to making cuts. Thousands of jobs were eliminated,” she recalled.

She was also leaving soon – for a well-earned vacation – when she finally got word that her position was one of the ones impacted by the restructuring. “This was 48 hours before leaving for a European vacation I had been looking forward to. I was told I could still cancel it, but I said, ‘No thanks!’ I went home and started making calls the next day.”

Fisk was a participant in the bank’s high potential development program and had made networking a career priority over the past few years, so she had plenty of connections to draw from. “I decided to view this as an opportunity and stay calm. I called headquarters and people in my network, and also made sure to notify people in my professional development program that they didn’t need to save me,” she said. “People in this situation tend to get scared and grab for the nearest branch. I made it known this wasn’t the approach I was taking.”

She also made calls to her weak ties, people she knew outside her core network who may have access to information and opportunities she didn’t know about. “I went to see a person I thought could make an interesting position happen for me. I left a lot of irons in the fire before leaving on vacation! I also took the opportunity to connect with people in my network while I was in Europe.”

She went on her vacation, and by the end of the month, she had three solid options. Fisk says the most important things to do when confronted by a career upheaval are to keep networking and not to lose confidence in yourself.

“Let people share their ideas. People you wouldn’t necessarily even think might give you an idea provide a neutral perspective that might not be obvious to you,” she said. “I’ve always seen myself as a risk taker. Sometimes I need people around me to encourage me to take those risks, though. You need those people to support you, to help you go from thinking about it to actually doing it.”

Fisk says her networking and cool-headed approach to what could be seen by many as a crisis paid off. She has accepted an exciting leadership position at a major multinational company. “I’m positive this will open a door to a lot of other things” she remarked.

Life Cycles
Throughout the course of our lives, we will all deal with cycles of personal and professional upheaval. But according to Beate Chelette, an entrepreneur, career coach, and guest-contributor to The Glass Hammer, we don’t talk about them with one another enough.

Chelette, founder of The Womens’ Code and author of Happy Woman Happy World learned this the hard way. A photographer by training, she came to the United States from Germany and began working for a photo agency in LA in the ’90s. Two months after giving birth to her daughter, the economy took a turn for the worse and she was laid off from her job. She didn’t know what to do, so she founded her own photo production and representation business.

Due to a little luck and a lot of hard work, she built a successful agency. “It’s not easy to run a business as a single mom, much less a successful one,” she remarked. Then ten years in, she found herself in legal trouble because of a former employee, and lost the representation side of her business. “Then came 9/11, and within 24 hours I lost half a million from my production business. I lost everything. My business was completely wiped out,” she said. But, she continued, she had no choice but to keep going.

“So I started anew. I created a stockphoto syndication business that became a global phenomenon. I sold it to Corbis and became their senior director of photography for entertainment,” she said. “Before that, I had felt like such a failure for a long time. I was an immigrant, I was in difficult financial circumstances, I was a single mom. I proved to myself and the world that women – especially single mothers – can achieve anything.”

Ultimately, Chelette found that the corporate life was not for her, so she left the company she had founded and sold for millions of dollars. Today she runs a career-coaching business in California and will soon publish a new book. “I want to help women be successful. Many of them experience the double shift. I want to start a worldwide movement of helping women succeed in their personal and professional life by collaborating with one another.”

She says her idea for The Women’s Code goes back decades and is based on the notion that women’s lives are cyclical, and that we would all benefit by sharing more about our triumphs and challenges with one another.

She explained, “I was having a difficult time with my daughter as a three-year old. She was coughing all night long, so I put her in my bed to have her close to me. I heard the sound of someone desperate, trying to suck in air, and then absolute silence. For the next couple of years my life revolved around this. It was all I could think about. Then one day, she was well, and it was gone.”

“There are things we get so obsessed about and they get resolved, and then there is another thing,” she continued. “I learned there is a real rhythm to life.”

Similarly, she said, looking back on both her child’s health and business woes, “I was so surprised that that information isn’t shared. I could hardly have been the first mother to go through that. I could hardly be the first business owner to have been screwed over by a bad apple. We shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel and we have to recognize these patterns in life and discuss them with one another.”

Just like Fisk, Chelette believes that networking and building strong relationships can help us get through hard times, and empower us to help others get through their own challenges.

“We’re not islands. If I do well, I’ve just set an example that it’s possible, and I should be obliged to share that. We need to step out of doubt and we need to learn to help each other,” Chelette added.